In 2001 there were 246,400 births registered in Australia. At 1.73 babies per woman, the total fertility rate for 2001 was the lowest on record. Australia is experiencing the second of two long periods of fertility decline since 1901: from 1907 to 1934; and from 1962 to the present.

For the first decade of the 20th century the total fertility rate remained at around 3.7 to 4.0 babies per woman, then consistently declined over the next two and a half decades. By 1934, during the Great Depression, the total fertility rate had fallen to 2.1 babies per woman. It then increased during the second half of the 1930s, as women who had deferred child-bearing in the Depression years began to have children. Fertility increased through World War II and the 1950s, and peaked in 1961 when the total fertility rate reached 3.5 babies per woman (graph 5.24).

After the 1961 peak the total fertility rate fell rapidly to 2.9 babies per woman in 1966. This fall can be attributed to changing social attitudes, in particular a change in people's perception of desired family size, facilitated by the oral contraceptive pill becoming available. During the 1970s the total fertility rate dropped further, falling to replacement level (2.1 babies per woman) in 1976, below which it has remained since. This fall was more marked than the fall in the early-1960s and has been linked to the increasing participation of women in education and the labour force, changing attitudes to family size, lifestyle choices and greater access to contraceptive measures and abortion.

Of all births registered in Australia in 2001, 5% (11,400) were Indigenous - that is, at least one parent identified as Indigenous. Indigenous women have a higher fertility rate (2.14 babies per woman) than all women, largely due to relatively high fertility at younger ages. In 2001, women under 30 years of age accounted for three-quarters of the total fertility rate. The median age of Indigenous women who registered a birth in 2001 was 24.8 years, more than five years younger than the median age of all women who registered a birth (30.0 years).

According to United Nations projections, the world average total fertility rate for 2000-05 will be 2.69 babies per woman, declining from the relatively constant five births per woman that existed until the late-1960s and early-1970s. However, total fertility rates for individual countries vary considerably. Many factors can influence a country's fertility rate, such as differences in social and economic development and the prevalence of contraceptive use. In general, developing countries have higher fertility rates while developed countries usually have lower rates.

While Australia’s total fertility rate for 2001 of 1.73 babies per woman is well below the world’s average, it is comparable to that of other developed countries, most of which have also experienced sustained fertility decline. According to the United Nations estimated average total fertility rates for 2000-05, Hong Kong (SAR of China) has the lowest fertility rate of 1.00, followed by Bulgaria, Latvia and Macau (SAR of China) (1.10). Several European countries also have very low fertility, including Spain (1.15), Italy (1.23) and Greece (1.27). By contrast, many West African and Asian countries have relatively high fertility rates, with Niger (8.00) and Somalia (7.25) the highest.

Over the past 50 years, fertility has declined in most countries. Of the selected countries shown in graph 5.25, the total fertility rates of the Asian countries have shown the largest declines. Singapore and China experienced large declines in the total fertility rate of 6.4 and 6.2 children per woman respectively in 1950-55, to 1.4 and 1.8 in 2000-05.

Australian women continue to delay child-bearing. The median age at child-bearing increased from 26.7 years in 1981 to 28.5 years in 1991, then to 30.0 years in 2001 (graph 5.26). Over the past 20 years there has been a fall in the proportion of births to teenage mothers, from 7.6% in 1981 to 4.8% in 2001. Conversely, the proportion of births to women aged 40 years and above has increased, from 0.8% in 1981 to 2.9% in 2001. However, births to older mothers have failed to compensate for the decline in births to younger women, resulting in the decline in total fertility.

Total issue data provides an alternative to the ‘snapshot’ measure provided by the total fertility rate. Total issue data reveal a decline over time in the average number of children by age of women. Women who were 25-29 years of age in 1981 had 1.3 children on average, compared to 0.8 children ever born to women of the same age in 2001. While at earlier ages the decline in average issue may be related to the postponement of child-bearing, average issue among women aged 40-44 years, which has also declined (from 2.8 children in 1981 to 2.3 children in 2001) more or less equates to completed fertility.

The proportion of women remaining childless has increased over time in each age group. For women aged 25-29 years in 1981, 35% were childless, while 59% of women of the same age in 2001 were childless. The same pattern is evident among women approaching the end of their reproductive years. In 1981, 8% of 40-44 year old women were childless. By 2001 this proportion had increased to 13%.

Table 5.27 brings together summary measures of fertility for census years between 1901 and 1986, and individual years between 1991 and 2001.

5.27 SELECTED SUMMARY MEASURES OF FERTILITY

Registered births

Crude births

Total fertility

Ex-nuptial births(a)

Year ended 31 December

no.

rate(b)

rate(c)

%

1901

102,945

27.2

(d)3.93

n.a.

1911

122,193

27.2

(d)3.69

5.8

1921

136,198

25.0

3.12

4.7

1933

111,269

16.8

2.17

4.7

1947

182,384

24.1

3.08

4.0

1954

202,256

22.5

3.19

4.0

1961

239,986

22.8

3.55

5.1

1966

223,731

19.3

2.89

7.4

1971

276,361

21.6

2.95

9.3

1976

227,810

16.2

2.06

10.1

1981

235,842

15.8

1.94

13.2

1986

243,408

15.2

1.87

16.8

1991

257,247

14.9

1.86

23.0

1992

264,151

15.1

1.89

24.0

1993

260,229

14.7

1.86

24.9

1994

258,051

14.5

1.85

25.6

1995

256,190

14.2

1.83

26.6

1996

253,834

13.9

1.80

27.4

1997

251,842

13.6

1.78

28.1

1998

249,616

13.3

1.76

28.7

1999

248,870

13.1

1.75

29.2

2000

249,636

13.0

1.75

29.2

2001

246,394

12.6

1.73

30.7

(a) Proportion of total live births which were ex-nuptial.(b) Number of births expressed as a proportion of the total population; the rate is per 1,000 population.(c) The number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime if she experienced current age-specific fertility rates at each age of her reproductive life.(d) Estimated total fertility rate.